Philadelphia 76ers

By David Friedman(noreply@blogger.com) Several Eastern Conference teams clearly improved in the offseason--most notably the Philadelphia 76ers, who acquired Elton Brand. The Cleveland Cavaliers hope that Mo Williams will not only solidify the point guard position but that he will also be the best second scoring option that they have had in the LeBron James era; no James sidekick has averaged 17 ppg, a mark that Williams has exceeded each of the past two seasons. The Miami Heat not only added second overall pick Michael Beasley but they look forward to having a healthy and explosive Dwyane Wade for a full season. The New York Knicks will almost certainly improve now that Donnie Walsh and Mike D'Antoni are running the show but there is no reason to believe that even in the Eastern C...   [read the full post]

By noreply@blogger.com (David Friedman) Barkley made a candid admission that he has mentioned a few times on TNT: "One of the big regrets of my career is that I did not become a better defender." Of course, he then (half jokingly) took a shot at his first team, the Philadelphia 76ers: "I blame that on all the dead weight I had to carry with the 76ers." Barkley suggested that he could not play defense with the Sixers because he had to do all of the scoring and rebounding. He did carry a heavy burden at one point in his career but in his formative years with the Sixers Barkley played with Moses Malone, Julius Erving and Maurice Cheeks, so there were plenty of opportunities for him to learn how to play defense and plenty of role models from whom he could have sought guidance. The reality is that Bark...   [read the full post]

By noreply@blogger.com (David Friedman) 3) As long as the San Antonio Spurs have Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich they are going to be a formidable team. Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili are perfect complements to Duncan and the Spurs do an excellent job of finding veteran players who fit in perfectly to their system. Barring injuries or a marked decline by Duncan, the Spurs should be right back in the mix as a contender. 9) I've been saying for a couple years that the Raptors are the Phoenix Suns East: that means that they can win a lot of regular season games and be a tough playoff matchup but unless they become more stout defensively and on the glass they will not beat Boston, Cleveland, Detroit or Orlando in a seven game series.   [read the full post]

By David Friedman Eastern Conference 1 Boston 2, #8 Atlanta 0: 2 Detroit 1, #7 Philadelphia 1: The team stats are skewed in this series because the 76ers won game one by four points and then got blown out in game two. The Pistons are a veteran team that wants to slow the game down and execute better than their opponents, while the 76ers are a young, athletic team that thrives in the open court. Although the Pistons are clearly superior overall to the 76ers, Magic Johnson rightly pointed out that Philadelphia matches up well with Detroit at certain positions; for instance, Chauncey Billups cannot post up or physically bully Andre Miller the way that he does against smaller guards on other teams. 3 Orlando 2, #6 Toronto 1:   [read the full post]

By David Friedman Houston's winning streak, the exciting battle for MVP and the tight Western Conference playoff race have dominated NBA headlines recently, enabling the Philadelphia 76ers to fly under the radar--but the Sixers' 95-90 win over the Boston Celtics on Monday improved their March record to 10-2, including victories over Phoenix, San Antonio and Detroit. The Sixers currently own a 36-35 record and they have recovered impressively after starting the season 5-13. After a seven game losing streak to start off January dropped the Sixers to 14-24 it did not seem likely that they would make the playoffs even in the weak Eastern Conference but they currently own the sixth playoff berth and they are just one game behind the fifth place Toronto Rap...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman The 76ers posted the highest scoring average ever for an NBA champion and the third highest in league history (125.2 ppg). They ended the Celtics' record run of eight straight championships and in 1980 they were selected as the greatest team in NBA history. Wilt Chamberlain insisted that this was the most talented team he ever played on and, considering that he was flanked by two other Top 50 players (Hal Greer and Billy Cunningham) plus Chet Walker (who should be in the Hall of Fame) and Luke Jackson (a powerful inside player whose career was cut short by injury) it is hard to disagree. 9) 1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks (66-16; 12-2) 8) 1982-83 Philadelphia 76ers (65-17; 12-1) 7) 1988-89 Detroit Pistons (63-19; 15-2)   [read the full post]

By David Friedman Before the game, TNT analysts Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith critiqued Iverson's game by saying that even though he puts up decent assists numbers he does not really have a point guard mentality; they asserted that he compiles assists primarily because he has the ball so much but that he only passes out of necessity when all of his shooting options are exhausted. There is some validity to that point of view, although I think that it is more apt to say that about guys like Stephon Marbury and Steve Francis. While there is no doubt that Iverson has a shoot first mentality, he has also shown throughout his career that he is willing and able to not only pass out of necessity but to create scoring opportunities for his teammates provided that they ar...   [read the full post]